India's Retail Trade Revolution: Socio Religious Dimensions of Employment Loss and New Forms of Urban Exclusion

Abstract

The urban retail trade in India is undergoing a change with the arrival of large domestic and foreign investors. This paper by highlighting the case of consolidation of retail trade by the Indian and foreign firms, attempts to understand the possible exclusion in the traditional sectors, including small entrepreneurship and street vending and related activities and brings out further questions of urban exclusion. Drawing from available official data, the paper argues that while the new organised retailing has the potential to affect every socio religious group in the sector, it will affect Muslims in urban India followed by the scheduled castes (SCs) more intensely due to their higher worker population ratio in elementary occupations and traditional retailing if the new retail trade replaces the traditional retailing as happened in other countries. This brings a new dimension to the continuing exclusion of these already excluded groups. The paper also highlights that while eliminating them from the entrepreneurship landscape, organised retailing would also raise the risk of their falling back to exploitative caste centred agrarian sector and urban informal jobs from where they moved out once.